Previews

LEGO Star Wars Episode I Preview

A closer look at the first third of what may be the coolest Star Wars games in recent history.

Spiffy:

The gameplay is fun and easy to get into; it takes the Lego license and runs with it.

Iffy:

It appears to be a fairly short game; people may think it's too "kiddy."

A couple months back, I wrote up a preview based on my hands-on experience with Eidos' new LEGO Star Wars game. At the time, I noted that it seemed much cooler than a LEGO Star Wars game should be. Eidos has finally sent us a playable version, allowing us to delve deeper into the adventure. Sure enough, it's still remarkably fun. Be sure to check out that earlier preview for details on the game's mechanics, since we're gonna dive right in this time.

Although the full game covers all three of the prequel films, we'll just be looking into the Phantom Menace chapters for now, as well as a few new features that we've discovered. The game begins in a hub world -- the interior of Dexter's Diner from Episode II. You are free to roam around the interior of the diner and the small landing pad area outside. Inside the diner are four doors labeled "I," "II," "III," and "?." The first three doors (representing the three films, of course) take you into a new room where you enter new doors for each of the movie's levels. The "?" door, as you might suspect, is a secret for now.

Battle Droids are just as fragile in Lego form as they were in the movie. Shatter 'em!

Hey There, Stud

As you play through the game, you will find tons of LEGO Studs. These small, circular bricks act like currency in the game. By talking to Dexter Jettster in the diner, you can swap your Studs for information, special items, secrets features, and new playable characters. As you unlock new characters, they begin roaming around the hub world, where you can use the game's tagging feature to take control of them at any time.

You'll also need Studs to achieve "True Jedi Status." The more Studs you collect in each stage, the more your Jedi meter fills up. By filling up your meter in each stage, you unlock the game's biggest secret, which we suspect lies behind the "?" door.

LEGO Maniac

The landing pad area outside the diner houses a collection of vehicles that you can unlock. Hidden in each stage are 10 LEGO Canisters. Each one you find grants you a set of bricks that go towards building a model. Find all 10, and you not only get to see a completed LEGO-ized version of a Star Wars ship outside the diner, but you get a huge Stud bonus. LEGO fans will recognize some of the ships as replicas of the Star Wars Mini Model LEGO toys. Hopefully, new toys will be made based on the other ships.

After I was done playing around in the hub world, it was time to check out the game itself. Here's a peek at the Episode I chapters, including which characters you normally play through the stages as. Remember that once you complete a stage, you can replay it at any time in free play mode as any of the 56 (!) characters that you may have unlocked. Depending on the character's unique abilities, you may find new secrets upon replaying the chapter. Note that when I talk about the chapters' playable characters, that I use the free play character select screen's naming conventions, as there are occasionally multiple versions of the same character (like young and teenage Anakin).